Growing in a Hurry

Silver Moon's new brewing plant in Redmond continues the local trend

Following in the footsteps of places like Boneyard, 10 Barrel, Sunriver and Three Creeks, Silver Moon Brewing; which, just a couple years back, was much more known for its disco ball, pool table, and flimsy '50s soda-fountain stools than its beer—is the latest Central Oregon brewery to rapidly expand.

According to co-owner James Watts, work has begun on a new Silver Moon production facility located in southeastern Redmond, not far from the business park Juniper Brewing calls home. The 30-barrel system they'll install there will be used primarily to produce tons more of Silver Moon's four core brands (Get Sum Pale Ale, Voodoo Dog ISR, Hop Nob IPA, and Snake Bite Porter) for distribution across the Northwest.

"It's become necessary in a lot of ways," Watts told the Source, "since distribution in Washington [begun last December] has really been taking off. It'll also support our future efforts, like more contract brewing and expanding into the northern California area—we'll probably start in places like Chico, Sacramento and the East Bay first."

Watts said that the Redmond facility, slated for a June opening if all goes well, will be open to the public and offer a small tasting room (likely along the same lines as Boneyard's). The Greenwood Avenue brewpub is still their flagship bar, though, and Watts promised that the relief offered by the 30-barrel system will let the brewers in Bend focus more on barrel aging ("we want to have one of the bigger barrel programs in the area") and extra-experimental stuff. For Bend's third oldest brewery, change is arriving at a
rapid pace.